DEBASHIS SARKAR

The heart of a business success lies in its marketing. How have you been crafting such marketing objectives for your company that your customers find credible and aligned with their values?
We have kept it simple at Cipla. We listen to our customers a lot so we speak to them on detailed basis and see that how their values match our values. As we know that Cipla is 80 years old company, so a lot of trust has been generated by doing the business in a certain ethical way over the period of time. Access of high quality affordable medicine and support is the basic tenet of Cipla. And our role is to make sure that we don’t get diverted from our basic tenet of why we even exist into business.

How does Cipla constantly generate the trust with the consumer according to the mission and the values of the brand?
By not deviating from the core essence of the brand and no one has the license here to do so. We were one of the pioneers in the industry to have our own brand books much before. We have a rule book and we have a huge quality control which operates separately from the marketing organization. We have a different marketing QC which guides what is correct in terms of delivery promotions of the system that has helped us a lot. It is an internal process not under any pressure which is maintaining and editing it, to monitor systems various processes and that is how we have maintain trust over a period of time. We have cultivated the habit of saying ‘NO’ to which we feel incorrect. It’s not guided by any government policies not guided by anything it is just that what Cipla feels is right. It is a Cipla policy kind of thing.

With the epitome growth of the healthcare industry in India .What are the key strategies Cipla is opting to stay as the market leader?
The key strategies Cipla is opting to stay as the market leader:
• Focus-We are looking at the therapeutic segment where Cipla is doing very good. We are in top 5 and want to do very well respiratory supply.
• How we have treated our customers because—In spite of many temptations knowledge is the key where customers loves you and you love the customer back and that is how we are doing our marketing.
• Our people have to be a class apart– so we are equipping them. And making sure that they discuss the correct knowledge inside the clinic. We have adopted technology faster.
• Marketing is going to go a lot digital and that is the next pace even in the healthcare sector too.
• Forming alliances. How can we partner together. Alliances with hospitals or devices manufacturer so things like that. Alliance in the whole landscape. Alliance with the government Alliance with anybody.

What is the one thing you would wish to change about your industry?
To be honest what we require as a whole is an integrated approach, where either the industrial bodies or the government takes the lead in bringing everybody together. So we can manage the wastes much better than we are doing. It is a commodity which we cannot allow to be wasted. We want transformation in government policies and increased spent on healthcare for the interest of everybody. I don’t think Indian healthcare is backward in any stretch of Imagination. Our doctors, hospitals are latest and excellent. It’s just that the size of the population is so high and distribution is very wide. But in terms of quality, believe me, doctors are hugely capable and the industry as a whole is doing fantastic and are producing high quality products. Any company you can take is growing faster than you can imagine that means we are producing global products which are matchless and in that sense it’s a great sign for India.

Cipla is a global pharmaceutical company whose goal is to ensure that no patient shall be denied access to high quality, affordable medicine and support. What are the other healthcare facilities infused with advent of technology that the brand plans to initiate?
As of now none. What we believe is we are very good at making medicines and we don’t want to. We want to ramp up our production abilities and our R&D is fantastic in giving doses forms. So we can produce anything with complex technologies.